I focus on using the Internet, Inside Sales, Lead Generation, Gamification, and Social Media to grow business. I'm also an American who cares enough to speak up and a serial entrepreneur with a short attention span, so I need things to work really fast.

I am the President and Founder of InsideSales.com, the leading sales automation platform for inside sales professionals that I started with Dave Elkington, the other Founder and our amazing CEO, in 2004.

I speak at industry events, research industry topics, and my blog ranks first on ‘inside sales’ where I spend my time giving away (almost) all of our trade secrets www.KenKrogue.com.

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The Most Important Interview Question Never Asked

I have been hounding my business partner, our CEO, Dave Elkington, to share a very powerful question he has tested in the hiring process over the eight years of interviewing candidates in our growth company, InsideSales.com. He finally relented to sharing in this guest post. – Ken

Dave:

Interviewing people for a job is a difficult task. There are dozens of different styles and approaches to performing interviews. Some interviewers ask ‘skill’ questions; others ask ‘problems solving’ riddles. Still, others look into background and weaknesses.

The most important interview question never asked

I don’t think that there is a correct or incorrect method; an interview style is a reflection of the interviewer, and is a reflection of their personality and needs as they look for someone to join their team. The future success of the interviewer is dependent on the person they hire, and therefore they need to make sure that it is a best possible fit.

Here is a single question that is essential to ask that never is:

“What is it that you are looking for in your next job?”

This is a dangerous question to ask without some guidance for the interviewee. Without boundaries in the options, they will try to makeup something that they think you want to hear. An approachI like to use is to give a set of options that are mutually exclusive to a question I ask. The options to this question are as follows:

What is it that you are looking for in your next job (pick one)?

More Money

Better Benefits

Different Culture

Growth and Opportunity

There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer. Rather, the interviewee’s answer will reveal what motivates them in the workplace. Now, the magic of the question isn’t the answer, but how the answer matches or contrasts your company’s culture and environment.

Each answer reveals job candidates that can be top performers and under-performers.

I will explain.

More MoneyCandidate: Candidates who answer with this option usually prioritize income over job satisfaction. I have found that they can be very driven, focused and effective at work, but are constantly looking for more income. They often have shorter stints at each job, and a sure sign will be a history of ‘job hops’, one to three years at each job. They often change jobs to get an increase in pay and/or title. These candidates will generally keep their resume posted on resume sites like Monster and will take interviews as opportunities arise, usually looking to maximize their income than to grow and bring a return to the company that hires them.

Company: If you are willing to pay top dollar, you can attract and retain top producers from this category. If not, you will lose this type of employee. One risk with this type of job candidate is that they may have pushed for income and title in their previous jobs over their skill set and capacity, and are looking for work because they couldn’t ’pull it off’ at the last job. You can still make the hire, just know and expect that you will not likely retain this person long term. Look for people with a track record of staying 5 years.

Better BenefitsCandidate: Candidates who answer with this option often ‘work to live’. They will work as much as needed to maximize time and focus for their personal lives. These candidates are looking for increased holiday, sick and PTO days, better health/retirement and company perks (free things, drinks, iPads, etc). These employees will often sacrifice income for these benefits, and will be very loyal when they find a company that provides these benefits. These candidates are less focused on short-term drive, and are there for the long haul. The best in this category are bright and smart enough to do 10+ hours of work in 7-8 hours and because of their IQ, can sometime out perform the best from other categories. They love environments that allow lots of freedom and flexibility.

Company: If you are a company that provides lots of benefits and perks, you will find long term loyalty from this type of employee. They are not usually the type that like to stay late, are driven and motivated to do extra, but are reliable and do their job (some can do it with excellence). The risk with this type of candidate is that they begin leaving early and coming late (abusing the flexibility) while not maintaining minimum performance requirements. These candidates are often a best match for companies that are in ‘maintenance’ or ‘status quo’ mode.

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Comments

This is a great analysis of this particular interview question and what behavior each answer indicates. I would suggest that a similar and equally difficult question to answer is “If you could choose any company to work for, where would you go?” I think the answer to this question would allow hiring managers to discover similar qualities about applicants.

A fair and valuable assessment of a pretty standard interview question, but can anyone honestly say this is a question that’s “never asked” in an interview? The only other nterview question I know which is more common would be, “Tell me something about yourself”.

Thank you for sharing Dave Elkington’s article, Ken. He has an interesting examination of candidate responses. I have to agree with Jeff that this question is asked during interviews, but maybe it’s just not asked enough.